W. Edwards Deming is famous for developing a continuous quality improvement model. It’s a sequence of four steps that can take you through any project successfully and creates a benchmark for you to follow.

It’s known as the PDCA model or cycle, the letters standing for Plan, Do, Check, Act

Of the many management models available, Deming’s is one of the most straightforward. Its analysis of how change can be managed has helped various businesses drive towards improved productivity and profits. The essential elements are:

PLAN: plan ahead for change. Analyse and predict the results.

DO: execute the plan, taking small steps in controlled circumstances.

CHECK, study the results.

ACT: take action to standardise or improve the process.

Each of these stages can be monitored for any project you’re working on, and create a great framework for you to assess your results.

Which stage is the most important?

They all link together, but if the plan isn’t laid on solid foundations for improvement, the results won’t drive the business forward. Executing a plan is important, but if the results aren’t measured and monitored, you are simply taking action for the sake of it, and can’t make contingency arrangements.

Results will occur whatever action you take, but if you want to get the same results again, you need to identify the recipe and standardise the actions you take, so you can get the same results again.

Deming’s model has been used effectively all over the world, and offers a sound basis for changing your approach to work.

Thanks again
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

It’s easy to give good feedback to your staff. You enjoy it, they enjoy it, you both get a lot of good feelings from it.

What if the feedback is not so good? How do you deal effectively with a situation where the team member needs less-than-positive feedback?

Here are some ideas:

Ensure you keep the lines of communication open. That way, your team member isn’t fearful every time you speak to them.

Don’t wait too long. The team member needs to see the link between the event and the feedback quickly. If not, the effect dissipates.

Be specific. “I want to discuss the project for client A with you” is much better than “Can we talk about the quality of your work?”

Describe actual behaviours rather than labels. Forget the “feedback sandwich”, good-bad-good; it’s seen as ineffective these days and dilutes the impact of good feedback.

Why the feedback? What was the result? Who was affected? The impact gives meaning to the feedback.

Focus on positive items. The more positive you are in your feedback, the more likely people are to repeat what you want.

Don’t make the feedback personal. It should be to enhance and drive change in behaviour, not as a label of another person’s character.

Check on how it’s been received. Maintain the positive interaction, and the team member will see the value of the feedback you’ve offered.

By maintaining good lines of communication, your feedback will be seen as part of the ongoing dialogue rather than you specifically focusing on the negative, and ignoring the positive.

Be aware of the results of your feedback on morale, and you’ll be seen as a competent and approachable manager, as you improve your feedback skills.

Thanks again
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Employees who take more days off than their peers can cause real problems for you. Morale, productivity and profits can be affected, and can irritate you more than than anything else, as you have to make swift arrangements to cover for the absent person, or simply lose the value of their contribution for the time they are off.

What can you do to deal with this ever-increasing problem?

Ensure team members rely on each other
They are less likely to take time off if they know their team mates will be affected by their actions. So, use work teams to get employees involved with each other. Let them work on projects or activities where they rely on each other’s input. Build trust within the team by opening the lines of communication in team meetings.

Look for warning signs
Keeping regular contact with each employee you are responsible for may nip potential problems in the bud. If people take time off because they are bored or don’t find the job challenging, you will pick this up in your regular 1-2-1 chats with them.

Watch for patterns
If the employee regularly takes time off that coincides with major events or happens to be a certain day of the week, keeping tabs on this may highlight a particular problem.

Maintain an evidence record
If you’re suspicious about a person’s absentee record, you need to keep evidence in writing, so you can manage the situation properly, if it comes down to it.

On their return, review the situation
The employee needs to know that you take it seriously, so a quick meeting on their return can un-earth specific problems they may be encountering.

Support legitimate personal problems
All sorts of problems may cause a person to take time off, and if family problems, low self-esteem, genuine illness or lack of motivation at work are seen as root causes, you need to approach these situation empathetically. Could the company offer help by way of training, extra holidays to deal with crises, counselling or something similar?

Make firm decisions if necessary
With a written record of the situation,you have strong grounds to approach the person with evidence and the need for explanations. Whatever the cause is, take firm action to deal with the problem. The longer it goes on, the more frustrated you will become with them, and that is not good for your employee relationships.

If counselling is required, arrange it. If discipline is needed, take it swiftly. If a warning or stronger is warranted, notify them in writing, and have the m sign the documents. The employee needs to know where they stand, and you need to set the standard for the team you lead.

Here are some tips in setting standards with a team of people:

Reward good performance that can only be attained by excellent attendance
Consider flexible working hours, child-care facilities and fitness programmes
Have policies to deal with legitimate employee absence. Keep in touch with absent colleagues by phone to check their illness
Look closely at the specific reasons why staff choose to be absent. If it’s regular, it may have more to do with the type of work that they are doing than any outside influence.

Dealing with absenteeism is a frustrating and sometimes annoying aspect of your job, but by analysing and recording the reasons, you give yourself a good chance of dealing with it it effectively.

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

Why this meeting? Why now?

If you ask people where most time is lost at work, the invariable answer is “meetings that don’t have a point”. So why do we let it happen? What can we do to persuade people that meetings are actually a valuable use of their time, and not another excuse for not getting their reports done on time?

One method that we use to ensure our time is used productively is to ensure all meetings have a ‘PAIR’. This stands for ‘Purpose and Intended Result’.

If your meeting doesn’t have a PAIR, prepare for time-wasting, tangential discussions and few, if any, decisions actually being taken.

Ask yourself: what is the purpose of the meeting, the actual reason it is taking place? Use a verb like ‘to agree on’ or ‘to create an action plan’.

‘To discuss…’ is not an effective purpose, because it doesn’t fulfill the second part of PAIR. It doesn’t help you or the other meeting attendees achieve a result. Have a measurable goal for your meetings. Ensure they are aimed at providing answers that you can only achieve at a meeting.

If you could have got the same result by sending out a report to individuals and then having a meeting to decide on the next actions following the report, then this might be a better reason for meeting.

Look at your next meeting coming up, maybe later today, or immediately after you’ve read this. What’s the purpose? Do you know? Have you been informed? What’s the intended result? Have all attendees been informed?

By insisting that each meeting you run or attend has a PAIR that everyone agrees with, you stand a better chance of achieving your goals and less chance of wasting your time!

Thanks again

Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Manager Training

Click below for a:
Free email course “Improve your Management Skills”

Do me a favour. Get a pen and a piece of paper. Carry out this simple exercise before reading down the screen. OK? Ready? Let’s go.

Draw a tree. Any tree. Just draw it. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece. Just draw a tree. Go on, do it now. Don’t look down the screen. Draw it now, then come back to this point.

Done it?

Good!

Take a look at the tree you’ve drawn. Some people’s drawings are magnificent and wild; others’ are simple and plain. It doesn’t matter. Now, let me ask you a question.

What’s the most important part of a tree? The trunk? Branches? Leaves?

Most people would agree it’s the roots. You can tell the condition of the roots by the condition of the tree. Strong roots, well-fed and watered, equal strong trunk and branches. And yet, most people we ask to carry out this exercise don’t draw the roots. Why?

Obvious. Because we don’t see them. They’re beneath ground. The most important part of the tree is beneath the surface, unseen.

How many other things do you tend to ignore because they are out of sight? What problems may occur because of this type of selective thinking?

Now, let me ask another question. What are the most important skills we expect to see in a great manager? I anticipate you saying things like communication skills, integrity, honesty, technical ability, motivation skills, a good listener, delegation skills and such-like. And how do you know the manager has these skills? By their behaviour, of course.

Most great managers we’ve seen have these skills, and more, developed over a period of time so they become habitual responses to challenging situations. They are seen as the result of tried and tested reactions. And where are they hidden? Beneath the surface. Where are they manifested? Above the surface, where they can be seen.

The observed qualities of great managers are developed beneath the surface, through constant personal development, skill assessment, trial and error, observation of others, constant monitoring, modeling, reading, research, coaching, self-motivation and training.

At the root of all qualities of great managers is consistent and never-ending improvement. They water and feed these roots constantly, so they never run dry or starve for nourishment. There’s a constant drip feed of quality material, readily devoured to nourish the hungry learner.

Seek them out. Be proactive in developing your skills that will feed the roots of your progress as a manager. What you see is a constant reminder of what’s below the surface. Make sure your skills are fed and watered effectively and consistently with a personal development programme that will support your growth. And next time, draw your tree with roots!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”